Brian Dean Curran
Ambassador, Haiti
Term of Appointment: 01/03/2001 to 08/2003
SHS 1966
Prior to his appointment, Ambassador Curran served as U.S. Ambassador to Mozambique (1997-2000).His previous assignments have included positions as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs (1994-1996), Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. embassy in Dublin (1987-1991), Special Assistant to Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Michael H. Armacost (1985-1987), and assignments to the U.S. embassies in Paris, Guinea Bissau, and Niger, and to the U.S. Mission to the European communities in Brussels, Belgium.From 1991-992, he served as an assistant to U.S. Representative Dante Fascell.
Ambassador Curran graduated from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in 1970.He received a Master's degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in 1972 and a Certificate of Studies from the National School of Administration in Paris, France in 1981.
Released on April 3, 2001
Biography of Brian Dean Curran
Ambassador Curran, whose home is in Seminole, Florida, is a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service of the U.S. Department of State, Class of Minister-Counselor. He joined the Foreign Service in 1973 and has served in Niger, Guinea-Bissau, Belgium, France and Ireland. He speaks French and Portuguese.
Ambassador Curran received his Bachelor's Degree in Foreign Service from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a Master of Arts Degree in International Affairs from the John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Brian Dean Curran is working to strengthen relations between Florida and Haiti.
By DAVID ADAMS, Times Latin America Correspondent
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 22, 2002
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- In this land of voodoo one might be tempted to believe that it was the spirits who delivered a former Seminole High School graduate to Haiti as U.S. ambassador.
When Haiti's dictator, Jean-Claude Duvalier, fled the country in 1986, Brian Dean Curran was one of a team of State Department officials who worked on arranging his exile to France.
"That was my first brush with Haiti," said Curran, 54, during an interview at the ambassador's expansive residence which he shares with his two Labradors, Thabo and Aida.
It was also prophetic. Having had a hand in the end of Duvalier's rule, which opened the way four years later to Haiti's first free elections, Curran's arrival here coincides with another fateful moment in the country's rocky road to democracy.
Despite the United States' intervention in Haiti in 1994, which ousted a brutal military regime, relations between Washington and President Jean-Bertrand Aristide are strained. The United States and other donor nations are holding back an estimated $500-million in foreign aid over allegations of electoral fraud in May 2000 by Aristide's ruling party.
"It's an exhilarating challenge," Curran said. "This is an important moment in Haiti's progress toward democracy. The U.S. wants to continue to make a contribution."
In view of the current political impasse, Curran has turned to Florida's rapidly-growing Haitian-American community to build new bridges. According to the 2000 census there are 268,000 Haitian-Americans living in the state -- mostly in Miami-Dade and Broward counties -- although community leaders believe the true number is far higher.
Relations between Haiti and Haitian-Americans are better than between the two governments. Curran suggests there is much to be learned from their interaction.
To that end he is embarking this year on what he calls "The Year of Florida-Haiti."
"There's just so much going on back and forth between Florida and Haiti," said Curran, who was sworn in as ambassador last January. "I want to focus the energies of the U.S. Embassy on highlighting them and expanding them."
He plans a series of events this year, including workshops on democracy, immigration and HIV-AIDS awareness.
"It's all about building bridges," Curran said. "There's a natural bridge that's already there. Maybe if we can channel that we can build better relations than there are now."
The events kicked off this week with a two-day visit by South Florida's top four elected Haitian-American representatives: the mayor of North Miami, Joseph Celestin; state Rep. Phillip Brutus; and two North Miami City Council members.
On Friday the group held meetings and workshops with Haitian politicians and civic leaders to discuss bipartisan consensus building, nonviolence and conflict resolution.
"I like this ambassador's approach," said Jacques Despinosse, one of the North Miami City Council members. "They never tried nonviolence in Haiti before. All they ever had is Uzis and AK-47s and all these military things."
Despite the restoration of democracy, Haitian politics remain deeply divided. Relations between Aristide's ruling Lavalas Family party and the opposition Democratic Convergence are at an all-time low over the electoral dispute.
After an attempted military coup last month, supporters of Aristide attacked and burned the offices of opposition parties as well as the homes of some of their leaders. In another sign of government weakness, Prime Minister Jean-Marie Cherestal resigned last week.
Curran remains hopeful that the current impasse can be overcome. But it's not been easy, and many Haitians blame the United States for the crisis.
The latest incident came Jan. 1 when the ambassador walked out of the National Palace shortly before Aristide was to deliver a state of the nation address. The proceedings were disrupted by a pro-government crowd gathered outside the palace shouting slogans against the United States and President Bush.
"I have every reason to believe they were invited there by the government," Curran said.
Shortly afterward, Aristide delivered a biting speech criticizing the international community over the foreign aid cut, calling it "economic terrorism."
While he honored the memory of the victims of Sept. 11, he reminded the audience of what he called "the unparalleled debt" the international community owed Haiti from centuries of slavery.
"The Haitian people will never accept to be excluded without fighting peacefully and heroically against any form of apartheid," Aristide said. "We need bridges and dialogues; not walls of exclusion."
Despite the poor state of official relations, Curran has won widespread praise in Haiti (and at home) for his deft handling of Haiti's rough and tumble politics.
"He's the best ambassador Haiti could have today," said Richard Coles, a leading businessman and former president of the Haitian Manufacturers Association. "He's very cultivated and bipartisan. It's not just black and white. He gets into the nuances."
In a country where national sensibilities are easily offended, Curran needs to use all his diplomatic skills. He is careful not to take sides in local political squabbles, but is firm when it comes to defending political freedoms. On Friday he made a point of visiting a local research center, run by the wife of a prominent opposition leader, that was attacked and burned during the December violence. Curran brought along a generator and an offer of books from a State Department-funded program.
His previous postings in French-speaking countries prepared him well for Haiti. He also studied the country's native Creole language while waiting for his nomination as ambassador to be confirmed by Congress. (He speaks Portuguese as well.)
Curran has impressed many by venturing out of the capital to tour the length and breadth of the country. "He doesn't just travel to nice places," Coles said. "He goes deep, to places no one ever goes, not the bourgeoisie, not the Convergence, not even Aristide."
On Thursdays he can often be seen hanging out with the local crowd for "voodoo rock" night at Port-au-Prince's famed Oloffson Hotel, the setting for Graham Greene's novel, The Comedians. The house band, Ram, is fronted by the hotel's Haitian-American manager, Richard Morse, who takes the stage dressed up in top hat and tails as the lord of the graveyard, Baron Samedi.
Curran has also turned his official residence, a 1930s mansion overlooking the capital, into a showcase for Haitian-American art and photography.
The main reception room is dominated by a painting of the voodoo goddess Aida by Edouard Duval-Carrie, a Miami artist who was born in Haiti. For the round entrance hall Curran chose eight black and white photos by Philadelphia photographer Andrea Baldeck, taken from her recently published book, The Heart of Haiti.
Curran credits his foreign service career to an innate wanderlust. "I feel it in my blood," he said.
Born in Maine, he moved to Seminole in 1964 with his parents. His father, a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, was posted to Eglin Air Force Base.
Although he only spent two years there before going to study at Georgetown University, he still calls the city home. His mother still lives in Seminole.
He joined the foreign service after earning a master's degree in international affairs from Johns Hopkins University, specializing in African studies.
After a couple of postings in Africa and four years in France, including a year studying at the elite government administration school, he joined the staff of Florida Rep. Dante Fascell in the early 1990s. At the time Fascell was chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Curran was given the job of handling Cuba and Haiti issues.
Fascell was in his 38th year in Congress at the time. "He was a remarkable man," Curran said. "I gained a lot of admiration for him. He was a great representative for the state of Florida."
After a four year detour as deputy chief of mission in Dublin, where he was able to explore his family's Irish roots, he earned his first posting as ambassador, to Mozambique in 1997.
The country was emerging from a long and bloody civil war. Although Mozambique and Haiti are both learning to live in democracy, Curran said the differences outweigh the similarities.
"There are no tribes here. This is a nation with a common culture," he said. "You don't have to forge a sense of common destiny. This nation exists. That's an absolutely fundamental difference."
Even so, for the time being Mozambique is getting better grades from the international community.
"Mozambique is the poster-child of post-conflict societies, and by and large it's doing the right things," he said. "I'm sorry to say that's not the feeling we have in Haiti."